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Monday, 8 July 2013

08/07: ANOTHER WEEK HAS FLOWN BY

where does the time go? I'm pleased to say I've just about got over my cold, just an irritating cough left but that is gradually disappearing

Here's my week in a nutshell (in no particular order of events)

Portraits all finished, here are the last four all in cellophane protectors awaiting packing and despatch. Actually the Springer Spaniel has been despatched today for delivery tomorrow to Sussex.

The horse, labrador retriever and KC Spaniel are being collected tomorrow for delivery in Singapore on Friday morning. I will be making a post about the shipping agent soon but its too long and rambling to write tonight

My studio is looking a bit less cluttered now but I'll miss looking at these faces :-) Over the next few days I'll get the coloured pencil works framed ready for exhibition at Patchings Art Centre in August/September.

I've bowled in a couple of matches and have another match tomorrow morning. On Saturday I ended up making gallons of tea/coffee for the men in Saturday morning's knock out game. I'd only intended to drop David off and go home to do something useful. But the weather was glorious on Saturday and the club is in such a beautiful setting, overlooked by Whitstable Castle, that I really didn't mind hanging around for a few hours.

I also managed to get a bit of tidying work done in the garden but disaster struck when I dumped some weeds in one of our plastic compost bins. I haven't used this particular bin for months. As I dropped the weeds in the bin I heard a loud buzzing noise and looked down to see a bee crawling out from under my armpit - where it had stung me in retaliation for being trapped by my arm. Wow! it hurt!!
I thought I'd been stung by a wasp at first but later when all the activity in the bin had calmed down and the buzzing was less angry I photographed the insects from a safe distance - they are definitely bees.

Ironic really, we planted a bee friendly bed in our garden as bee numbers are on the decline and we need them to pollinate our fruit trees. Obviously we did a good job!!! Bless!!

Despite the fuzzy picture, I think you can see how much pollen this one is carrying in its 'pollen basket' on its leg. David was keen to know whether we had a honeycomb in the bin - ie was there any honey to be had ... but I'm not brave enough to investigate too closely

and these little caterpillars are quite spectacular

but seems they turn into very boring brown moths (Mullein Moths)

and, despite not really being a tennis fan, I watched the del Potro -v- Djokovic on Friday afternoon and was glued to the screen. I had to stop watching halfway through and play in a Bowls match but recorded the rest of the match so I could watch it on Friday evening. What a brilliant match.

Yesterday morning we visited our Mums and set out early so we could be home by 1pm for David to watch the German Grand Prix on the TV and me to watch Wimbledon on my computer at 2pm. Best laid plans and all that .... because the weather was good the roads to our seaside towns were busier than usual and an accident closed the motorway. We took the back routes (along with about a million other drivers it seems) and didn't get home till 2.30. But we'd recorded the sports so all wasn't lost and we did stop off at a cherry orchard to buy some cherries freshly picked from the trees. The Kent cherries are nearly 3 weeks late this year because of the late start to Summer.

I should have photographed the cherry pickers - with their traditional ladders but I forgot I had my camera with me. I think we'd been sitting in the car for so long stuck in traffic my brain had gone to sleep (to say nothing of my backside) LOL

Kentish cherries - complete with tiny caterpillar that emerged from the plastic box I was holding in my lap and crawled up my arm. I spent the last half hour of the journey trying to divert it away from me and back into the box till we got home and I could release it in the garden.

David set up one of the laptops in the garden for me so I could sit in the sunshine to watch the Wimbledon Finals .... He 'buried' the laptop in an upturned plastic box surrounded by various box lids and chair cushions to shield the screen from the bright light. A bit precarious as it was quite breezy in the garden. Here on the Kent coast our weather has not been as still/hot as London/Wimbledon - but nice all the same.

One of our resident blackbirds was so pleased to have an audience he sang and whistled his little heart out all the time I was in the garden (had to turn the sound up on the computer at times)! I did make some mini-videos on my camera but can't work out how to upload them to Blogger just now so you'll have to imagine the scene.

Today David had to go to hospital. He has annual endoscopy tests to keep track of a 'problem' he has. His last test was in April and although he got the all-clear from the Consultant at the time, biopsy results necessitated a call-back for further tests today. So he has to take it easy for a couple of days, no driving etc and we'll get the results in about 3 weeks. I don't think the Consultant is unduly worried so just a case of catching any changes in time and adjusting medication I think .... these treatments get done at a private hospital (paid for by the NHS) which is rather nice ... so we get to wait in a private bedroom, and he has excellent attention from an army of nurses and assistants plus a light meal once he wakes from the anaesthetic ... I just sit around waiting for him as I have to do the chauffering!

Just made him an 'invalid's supper' and he's being spoiled tonight! Make the most of it David - back to normal on Wednesday LOL!

7 comments:

What a busy week. You should be drawing the bowlers! I got caught in our seaside traffic. It is lovely to see the town full of people like it should be. I have a regular colonoscopy which is now to be every 5 years thank goodness as I hate the food and ruthless powder you have to take before hand and the visits to the loo! So I have a lot of sympathy for your poor hubs and hope all will be fine. Your paintings are superb and look really impressive all together. Have a lovely sunny week

thank you everybody. I've just arrived at our house in Fuerteventura - well, been here for a couple of hours opening up, putting shopping away etc but am now relaxing by the pool and taking it easy. Getting up at 2am is a shock to the system but after an early night tonight we'll be back to normal tomorrow.

I understand from 'house-sitter' that its very warm back home in Whitstable too!

HELLO FROM ME

I am a professional portrait artist living in Whitstable, Kent with my husband David. Working from your favourite photographs I specialise in drawing realistic portraits of pets and people, using graphite, coloured pencils and pastels. Why not commission a portrait of your horse, dog, cat or other family member? see some of my work at: www.sueclinker.co.uk